Build and display a pop-up message

Try the Compose way

Jetpack Compose is the recommended UI toolkit for Android. Learn how to add notifications in Compose.

Snackbar →

You can use a Snackbar to display a brief message to the user. Unlike Notifications, the message automatically goes away after a short period. A Snackbar is ideal for brief messages that the user doesn't need to act on. For example, an email app can use a Snackbar to tell the user that the app successfully sent an email.

Use a CoordinatorLayout

A Snackbar is attached to a view. The Snackbar provides basic functionality if it is attached to any object derived from the View class, such as any of the common layout objects. However, if the Snackbar is attached to a CoordinatorLayout, the Snackbar gains additional features:

• The user can dismiss the Snackbar by swiping it away.
• The layout moves other UI elements when the Snackbar appears. For example, if the layout has a FloatingActionButton, the layout moves the button up when it shows a Snackbar, instead of drawing the Snackbar on top of the button. You can see how this looks in figure 1.

The CoordinatorLayout class provides a superset of the functionality of FrameLayout. If your app already uses a FrameLayout, you can replace that layout with a CoordinatorLayout to enable the full Snackbar functionality. If your app uses other layout objects, wrap your existing layout elements in a CoordinatorLayout, as shown in the following example:

<android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout
    android:id="@+id/myCoordinatorLayout"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <!-- Here are the existing layout elements, now wrapped in
         a CoordinatorLayout. -->
    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="vertical">

        <!-- ...Toolbar, other layouts, other elements... -->

    </LinearLayout>

</android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout>

Set an android:id tag for your CoordinatorLayout. You need the layout's ID when you display the message.

Figure 1. The CoordinatorLayout moves the FloatingActionButton up when the Snackbar appears.

Display a message

There are two steps to displaying a message. First, you create a Snackbar object with the message text. Then, you call that object's show() method to display the message to the user.

Create a Snackbar object

Create a Snackbar object by calling the static Snackbar.make() method. When you create the Snackbar, specify the message it displays and the length of time to show the message:

val mySnackbar = Snackbar.make(view, stringId, duration)

Snackbar mySnackbar = Snackbar.make(view, stringId, duration);

view

The view to attach the Snackbar to. The method searches up the view hierarchy from the passed view until it reaches a CoordinatorLayout or the window decor's content view. Ordinarily, it's simpler to pass the CoordinatorLayout enclosing your content.

stringId

The resource ID of the message you want to display. This can be formatted or unformatted text.

duration

The length of time to show the message. This can be LENGTH_SHORT or LENGTH_LONG.

Show the message to the user

After you create the Snackbar, call its show() method to display the Snackbar to the user:

mySnackbar.show()

mySnackbar.show();

The system doesn't show multiple Snackbar objects at the same time, so if the view is currently displaying another Snackbar, the system queues your Snackbar and displays it after the current Snackbar expires or is dismissed.

If you want to show a message to the user and don't need to call any of the Snackbar object's utility methods, you don't need to keep the reference to the Snackbar after you call show(). For this reason, it's common to use method chaining to create and show a Snackbar in one statement:

Snackbar.make(
        findViewById(R.id.myCoordinatorLayout),
        R.string.email_sent,
        Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT
).show()

Snackbar.make(findViewById(R.id.myCoordinatorLayout), R.string.email_sent,
                        Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT)
        .show();